Lars van der Haar has signed a contract to race for Sven Nys' Telenet-Fidea cyclo-cross team with a start date set for the beginning of the 2017 season. His current road and cyclo-cross team Giant-Alpecin made the official announcement on Thursday.

"Van der Haar's current contract expires at the end of the 2016 season, meaning he will still ride in the team's colors until December," the team statement read. "In 2017 he will join a new team. We would like to thank Lars for his professionalism and wish him the very best for his future."

Van der Haar, who's contract with Giant-Alpecin expires in December, was drawn in by the Telenet-Fidea team because of it's organised management and development of young riders Quinten Hermans, Thijs Aerts and Eli Iserbyt, according to a reports in the Belgian press.

Van der Haar joined Giant-Alpecin at the beginning of the 2015 season, after riding for their development team. He made two statements on Twitter about the move to Telenet-Fidea, writing about Sven Nys' position as the team's coach and trainer, and thanking Giant-Alpecin for their previous support.

A successful cyclo-cross racer, his career highlights include winning the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup in 2013, winning the Dutch national cyclo-cross championship twice (2013 and 2014), and winning the European championships. He was most recently second at the World Championships in January, behind winner Wout Van Aert (Belgium).

Really happy with this decision. It was a hard one. But happy to have the rest in the head now! Thanks again @GiantAlpecin and @sven_nys.

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